This week (Sat. June 6), The Thacker Mountain Radio Hour will take listeners on a 100,000 mile journey across America (with stops in Columbus, MS and Demopolis, AL) in a single-engine prop plane. Don’t miss this classic show from Feb. 21, 2019.
This Saturday, June 6, 2020
Guests: Authors Deborah & James Fallows (“Our Towns – A 100,000 Mile Journey Into the Heart of America”) – Couple spent five years flying to various small towns across America and have written a book on what they found makes a successful community. (Hint: craft breweries).
Music: Singer-songwriters Bailey Bigger – Memphis “Song of the Year”
and Doug Seegers – From homeless to Nashville recording contract – by way of Sweden. Must-hear story and song-
Hosts: Jim Dees and our house band, the Yalobushwhackers
Air times:
Mississippi: Saturday, June 6 at 7 pm: http://www.mpbonline.org/
Alabama: Saturday, June 6 at 9 pm: http://www.apr.org/#stream/
From 2013 to 2017, James and Deborah Fallows traveled across America in a single-engine prop airplane. Visiting dozens of towns, they have met hundreds of civic leaders, workers, immigrants, educators, environmentalists, artists, public servants, librarians, business people, city planners, students, and entrepreneurs.
Their fascinating view of the country, presented in their book, Our Towns (Vintage Books), is as complex and contradictory as America itself.
“An illuminating trip through ‘parts of the country generally missed by the media spotlight’… A well-reported, optimistic portrait of America’s future.” – Kirkus Reviews
James Fallows is a National Book Award winner and has been a national correspondent for The Atlantic for more than thirty-five years.
Deborah Fallows is a linguist and writer who holds a PhD in theoretical linguistics and is the author of two previous books.
Singer-songwriter Bailey Bigger is a Marion, Ark native now based in Memphis. Her latest release is the EP, “Between the Pages,” released in Oct. 2019. Her previous EP was her debut, Closer to Home (Blue Tom Records). Her song, “Wildflower” won the Memphis Songwriters Association “Memphis Best Song of the Year” in 2017.
Singer-songwriter Doug Seegers was a homeless street musician in Nashville in 2014 when fate intervened. A Swedish documentary crew filmed Seegers singing his composition, Going Down to the River and after the footage aired in Sweden, the song raced to the top of the Swedish i-Tunes charts. An album of the same name produced by Will Kimbrough went gold and suddenly Seegers was booked for a Swedish tour of 70 venues, beginning an improbable late life career.
Seegers wrote a book (with Steve Eubanks) about his life on the street, Going Down to the River (Thomas Nelson) which unflinchingly describes his battle with addiction, searching for food from dumpsters and living under a bridge. His debut solo album, A Story I Got To Tell will be released worldwide this spring on the BMG label.
Following his Thacker appearance, Seegers will play a dinner set at Proud Larry’s at 7 pm.